Our dates and times got a bit messed up when flying to Amsterdam, as I mentioned yesterday the flight coming into Amsterdam took the best part of 13 hours. When we finally arrived, it was around 4AM (local time) and we had around 4 hours before the next leg would begin. We wandered around the airport, taking some photos of the clogs and souviners available, from the few shops that were open around that time. Eunice was taking some photos of the tulip bulbs that were for sale at various locations. It's a large airport; the planes leaving in the next couple of hours occupied 13 full video screens of text, and it was clear that Amsterdam was the hub of Europe, similar to how Kuala Lumpur is the hub of Asia. The airport was similar, if not slightly larger than KL in size, and getting from our arrival terminal to our departure terminal was around a 30 minute walk (according to the screens) - this was further delayed when we had to go through customs again to get from one side of the airport to another and due to a large line and some issues with the people in front of us, yet another 30 minutes was detracted from our stay here. We changed a little bit of money from Australian Dollars to Euros at this time as well, for our future needs later in the day. When we made it through, we stopped at a cafe for a cappachino. We made it to our destination gate with a lot of time to spare, and sat down for the better part of an hour before our flight was called.

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The next flight was on a Fokker 100, a small twin jet engine airplane that seats around 100 people. We were driven to the plane over the tarmac by two large buses (I think these aircraft are too small for conventional boarding) and walked up the stairs. This time we were fortunate enough to get a window seat, whereas both our previous flights had been in the aisle.

Having the window seat, I was able to see just how large the airport we had just been in actually was, and when the Captain annouced we were fourth in a queue for take off (and seeing another four planes lined up behind us) it became apparent how popular and easy travel by plane in the European countries is. I managed to get some photos from the window, but unfortunately missed the chance to get photos of the Amsterdam airport.

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Even with this small aircraft, the flight to Marco Polo airport was around one and a half hours, when we caught our first glimpses of the place we were going to be married.

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We were greeted at Marco Polo by our local pickup, Barbara. She had arranged the transport by water taxi from the airport to our hotel, the Westin Europa and Regina, and on the way told us some facts and tips about Venice. These were great as, though we'd read some books on the city, local knowledge is always more current and relative.

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We were a bit early for check-in, arriving around 11.30AM, so left our bags with the hotel and set about to explore some of the wonders Venice had to offer. We stopped at a small Delicatessan and purchased some lunch, I think it was sliced beef in a roll with some Olive Oil added for flavouring. Later we got a Gelati yoghurt ice cream to finish off the meal, before heading back to the hotel to finalize our room and sorting out our luggage.

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We had spent a fair amount of money on the room in Venice, as it would be for our wedding and the start of our honeymoon, and it turned out to be five star luxury. Our room overlooks the Grand Canal, and is splendid in many ways. The entry has space to put our coats and shoes, plus other miscellaneous items. The main room has a dresser, lounge, a couple of seats, and a chandelier all in matching furniture, with old world charm. The large bathroom has a double basin for washing, a shower/bath big enough for the both of us, toilet, bidet, and heated towel racks. Luxury.

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I'm not a good sleeper on planes, so by this time I was worn out and got a couple of hours sleep before we went out again. This time in the direction of St Marks square, with the purpose of finding where we are to meet tomorrow for our early morning "Walking tour of Venice". After we located the meeting point, we grabbed some dinner in the form of a couple of Pizza's. We'd been told previously that the pizza's in Italy were among the best in the world, but I found it not to be the case; Eunice and I conjected that this may have been due to the fact we purchased them semi-frozen and the shop attendant reheated them in a microwave. We'll have to try some authentic ones later to check whether this was the cause.

After dinner we wandered further around and decided to turn in relatively early due to the long flight and an early start tomorrow. I managed to grab these pics in our wanderings.

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